Deadlifts are a staple of any resistance training program. Performing them wrong can lead to serious injury.

If you’re using a Smith machine, it’s essential to know how to deadlift on it correctly. This will help you avoid lower back pain and injury while improving your deadlift strength and hypertrophy.

Start With Your Hips Too High

One of the most common mistakes people make when deadlifting on a smith machine is to start with their hips too high. This can make it challenging to keep their legs straight and prevent them from adequately involving the leg muscles during the movement.

This can be a good idea for beginners, but you’ll want to consult a fitness professional or your team at the gym if you’re not sure this is correct for your body type.

Compared to a barbell deadlift, the Smith machine doesn’t activate your stabilizers, which means you can lift more weight without straining your lats, rhomboids, and traps.

Another critical difference between a smith machine and a barbell deadlift is that the Smith has a fixed bar path. This can benefit those new to the exercise, as it helps isolate lats, rhomboids, traps, and other muscle groups better than a barbell.

Start Looking Down

When it comes to deadlifting, keeping your hips in the proper position throughout the entire movement is essential. This is especially true when doing a Smith machine deadlift.

You can do this by ensuring that your feet are under the bar and that your hands are gripping the bar at shoulder-width distances. You will also want to make sure your knees are slightly bent.

Performing a good setup deadlift is crucial for both safety and efficiency. This guide focuses on a systematic set up to help prevent the most common deadlift errors.

Whether you are looking to train the glutes directly or want to incorporate more compound exercises into your routine, the Smith machine is a valuable piece of gym equipment. It allows beginners and advanced lifters to isolate the glutes even better than free weights, which can be crucial for greater strength and size gains.

Lift With Your Lower Back

It’s essential to keep your lower back neutral during deadlifts. This is called lordosis and keeps the pressure on your spinal discs equal throughout the lift.

Over-arching your lower back is wrong as it puts uneven pressure on your spinal discs and can cause herniated discs. This is because it squeezes the front part of your spinal discs on one side of your stomach.

If you’re a beginner, it’s best to set your lower back up properly before you pull the weight. Raise your chest, arch your lower back until it’s neutral, and then lock it into position.

It’s also essential to grip the bar correctly. You’ll need a mixed grip with your palms facing the bar and your thumbs facing each other to get proper control over the weight.

Don’t Let Your Hips Extend

One of the most important things you can do to deadlift on a smith machine properly is not to let your hips extend when you start the lift. This is because if you allow your hips to grow in the deadlift, your back angle will become more horizontal than usual, which can stress your lower back.

Instead, your back needs to stay rigid to prevent your hips from extending too far and potentially causing injury.

To ensure that your hips aren’t extending too far, keep them in a stance with your feet that are shoulder-width apart.

You can also try to set your feet slightly narrower than shoulder-width if your hips extend too far. This can help reduce the stress on your lower back when you begin the lift, which can help minimize injury risk.